Saw-tooth deflection



K. R. WENDT Nov. 28, l 944.

SAW-TODTH EFLEGEIDN Filed Jan. 2,P 1941 2 Sheets-SIEGE?, 1

` SYNC- PULSES Nov. 28, 1944. Y K. R. WENDT 2,36322 SAW-TOOTH DEFLECTION Filed Jan. 2, 1941 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 g i VaLV'vS cama: mi? TUBE 10 WIWI v51/alms a/vGn/.

voLvwGL' 'ro I Wfl/c1! C 16 MG. 6 Ep Alm' nml/@HEB ra GROUND .wsa/mezz: n Graaf/p auf www a..c. couru/va Faw. ml

F5626 b. Inventor Kdrz; H. Vlg-:ndt

Patented Nov. 28, 1944 s PArsNr SAW-'TOOTH DEFLECTION Karl B. Wendt, Audubon, N. J., assigner to Radio Corporation of America, a corporation of Dela- Application January 2, 1941, serial No. 372,816

(ci.Y 25o- 27) 3' Claims.

My invention relates to cathode ray deecting circuits and particularly to the production and synchronization of saw-tooth waves in television apparatus.

One of the objects of my invention is to provide an improved deecting circuit which may be directly driven by the synchronizing pulses even though these pulses are a mixture of line synchronizing pulses and framing pulses.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved deilecting circuit which may be driven by the blanking pulses that are provided to block periodically the electron beam of a cathode ray tube. I

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved circuit for generating a saw-tooth voltage wave.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an improved circuit for obtaining` keystone correction in television circuits or the like.

In practicing a -preferred embodiment of the invention, a condenser of small capacity is charged slowly through a resistor of high resistance and discharged rapidly through a vacuum tube to ground potential to produce a saw-tooth voltage across the condenser. By making the capacityvof the condenser small, it is possible always to discharge the condenser to a xed ptential, such as ground potential, at the end of each saw-tooth wave. 'I'he saw-tooth wave is impressed upon the input circuit of an amplier tube by means of direct current coupling between the two tubes whereby there is avoided the presence of a grid leak resistor which would putl a load across the condenser and spoil the shape of the saw-tooth voltage.

The above-described circuit is particularly useful in directly driven deflecting circuits and in circuits wherein keystone correction is obtained by modulatingl the line frequency or horizontal defiection saw-tooth waves by the vertical deflection waves.

The invention will be better understood from the following taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 is a circuit diagram of one embodi- 1 ment of the invention as applied to electrostatic deflection,

Figure 2 illustrates a modincation of a portion of the circuit of Fig. 1,

Figure 3 illustrates the applicationA of my invention to an electromagnetic deflection circuit having keystone correction,

Figure 4 is a diagram illustrating the shape Each succeeding line dei'lecting saw-tooth is the of the deiiectlng voltage generated by the circuit of Fig. l,

Figure 5 is a curve of a tube characteristic which is referred to in explaining the invention,

Figures 6 and '7 are diagrams which are referred to in explaining the advantages of the circuit of Fig. 1, and

Figures 8a and 8b are diagrams illustrating the operation of the circuit of Fig. 1.

Referring to Fig. l, the invention is shown applied to a. horizonal or line frequency deflection circuit comprising a condenser C across which a saw-tooth voltage is to -be produced, a suitable voltage source (not shown) may be shunted by a potentiometer 9 from which a charging current is fed into the condenser C through a high impedance resistor R. The charging circuit just described causes a voltage to be built up across the condenser C as indicated by the straight line portion of the saw-tooth curve in Fig. 4 and as is well understood in the art. It Will be understood that while the condenser C is being charged through the resistor R, the discharge tube l0, which preferably is of the high vacuum type and which is provided for the purpose of suddenly discharging the condenser C, is so negatively biased that it is non-conducting.

The condenser C is next caused to discharge Arapidly to a xed potential suchas ground potential through the discharge tube l0 in response to a positive synchronizing pulse being applied to the control grid ll of tube l0. An important feature of the invention is that the condenser C has such small capacity, and the circuit is otherwise so designed and driven by the in- ,coming synchronizing pulses, that each synchronizing pulse will cause the condenser C to discharge to a fixed predetermined potential as stated above. This complete discharge of the condenser C to a xed potential (ground potential in the present example) is illustrated in Fig. 4 by that portion of the curve located in the region labeled Duration of H Pulse. As shown by this portion of the curve, upon the occurrence of a horizontal synchronizing voltage pulse H, the condenser C discharges very rapidly through the discharge tube i0 and it is substantially ycompletely discharged while the pulse is still being applied to the grid of tube IU whereby, at the end of the saw-tooth, the curve has a flat portion at ground potential or zero volts.

same as theone just described and illustrated in Fig. 4.. i

The deflecting circuit illustrated in Fig. 1 is a directly driven circuit, each saw-tooth wave being produced by the application of the horizontal synchronizing pulses themselves, indicated at H. to the grid Il of the discharge tube HL The particular circuit shown in Fig. 1 is designed for use in a television transmitter to provide the horizontal deflection of the cathode ray in the picture pickup tube. It has been the common practice to use directly driven deflecting circuits for the picture pickup tube, but in order to do this it has been considered necessary to provide from the synchronizing pulse generator two separate sources of synchronizing pulses, one being for horizontal deection and the other .being for vertical deection. In addition, it was the Usual practice to supply another group oi pulses for blanklng, that is, for blocking Vthe beam of the pickup tube during the horizontal and vertical return line periods. 'I'he blanking pulses, horizontal and vertical, were'mixed, while the horizontal and vertical synchronizing pulses were not.

My invention makes it possible to drive the horizontal deecting circuit from a source of mixed synchronizing pulses such as the signal indicated in Fig. 1, where the horizontal synchronizing pulses are indicated at H and avertical synchronizing pulse of comparatively long duration is indicated at V. In practice, this mixedsignal may be the blanking signal itself. f

The main feature of interest in this signal, so far as the defiecting circuit operation is concerned, is that there is a discontinuity in' the occurrence of the horizontal synchronizing pulses.

It has been stated that while the condenser C is being charged through the resistor R, the discharge tube I0 is non-conducting. The neecssary bias to hold the tube I0 non-conducting between synchronizing pulses is obtained by means of grid leak biasing, the synchronizing-.

pulses being of positive polarity and of suflleient amplitude to drive the grid Il positive to produce a ow of grid current which puts adirect current charge on the grid condenser I6. At the end of the pulse the condenser I6 discharges a certain amount through the grid leak resistor I1 whereby a sucient voltage drop is produced across the grid resistor to hold the grid H at the desired negative potential between pulses.

The synchronizing pulses also are of sufficient amplitude, 25 volts, for example, to drive the grid ll so far positive that the condenser C will discharge rapidly to ground potential. For example, the synchronizing pulses may be irnpressed on the grid il with sufficient amplitude curve in the region of the lower plate voltages.

that, as the condenser C loses most of its charge, the plate impedance of the discharge tube I0 becomes very low whereby complete discharge of the condenser C is insured.

It has been found that satisfactory operation is obtained if the discharge tube l0 is ahighmu triode, such Aas a 6N7.v Also, excellent results may be obtained by employing apentode for discharging the condenser C providing the proper voltages are applied to its electrodes as will be described hereinafter in connection with Fig. 2.

In accordance with the preferred embodiment of my invention the saw-tooth voltage wave appearing across the condenser C is applied to an ampliner or output tube 2| through a direct current connection whereby the tube 2l requires no coupling or grid condenser and no grid leak resistor.

The cathode 22 of tube 2| is connected to ground through a cathode resistorV 23 whereby the cathode 22 is held positive with respect to ground andwith respect to the grid of tube 2|. This makes unnecessary the use of the negative biasing battery commonly located in the D. C. connection of D. C. amplifiers.

The cathode resistor 23 is employed for a second purpose, namely, to permit operation of the tube 2| as a cathode follower tube so that signal of one polarity may be obtained from across the cathode resistor 23 and signal of the opposite polarity obtained from across the plate resistor 2li for the purpose of feeding into a pushpull amplifier. i

'Ihe push-pull amplifier comprises amplifier tubes 2l and 28 which are coupled through the coupling condensers 29' and 3l to the output resistors 26 and 23, respectively. The grids of the tubes 21 and 28 are negatively biased by means of a cathode resistor.32.

The output circuit of the push-pull amplifier may be a conventional balanced circuit for supplying the saw-tooth voltage wave to a pair of electrostatic defiecting plates.

In the present invention the elimination of the grid leak resistor, which in the case y01E an A.v C. connection would be effectively in shunt to the condenser C, is very important because of the circuit constants required by the invention, specifically because of the low capacity of condenser C and the high resistance of resistor R.

It will be understood that condenser C must have small capacity to make possible its complete discharge during the occurrence of a horizontal synchronizing pulse H. It follows that the resistor R through which condenser C is charged must have a very high resistance if each saw-tooth wave is to have the proper amplitude and wave shape. In other words, if the resistor R had a comparatively low resistance, such as 100,000 ohms frequently employed in horizontal deflecting circuits, the condenser C would receive full charge long before the end of the desired saw-tooth. Since a shunting resistance across consenser C would have an eect similar to a f reduction in the resistance of resistor R, the use f of a grid leak resistor in the grid circuit of the tube 2l would make it impossible to obtain across the condenser C a voltage having a good sawtooth wave shape and it would be necessary to resort to wave shape correction circuits or networks.

Another disadvantage of an A. C. connection between the tubes l0 and 2| as com-pared with a D. C. connection is that during the vertical synchronizing pulse time (when there are no horizontal synchronizing pulses) an A. C. coupling condenser could not hold enough of its charge to prevent saw-tooth voltage output from having the characteristic shown in Fig. '7. As illustrated in this figure, at the end of the vertical synchronizing time the' horizontal saw-tooth waves start at a higher voltage level than they should and are brought back to the desired voltage level (where the condenser C is discharged to ground potential each time) only after a. succession of horizontal synchronizing pulses.

In the circuit illustrated in Fig. 1, on the other hand, a signal such as shown in Figure 8a when applied to the discharge tube Ill will produce in the output circuit of the tube 2l saw-tooth voltage waves having the characteristics shown in Figure 8b. It will be apparent that immediately following the vertical synchronizing period the horizontal deiiecting saw-tooth waves are at the desired voltage level and willv deilectthe cathode ray without any undesired disturbance or distortion of the deilection on the scanning screen.

It may be of interest to compare the results obtained with thepresent invention with those obtained by a conventional horizontal deilecting circuit for the case' where the deecting circuit is being driven by the mixed horizontal and vertical synchronizing pulsea The resulting sawtooth output for such operation of a conventional circuit is illustrated in Fig. 6. It will be seen that during the vertical synchronizing period the saw-tooth condenser loses much more of its charge than it does during a horizontal synchronizing period, and that at the end of the vertical synchronizing period the charge on the condenser gradually builds up as the horizontal saw-tooth waves are generated. This is not a useable signal and it is because of this that it previously has been the practice in television transmitters, where directly driven deecting circuits are employed, to drive the horizontal and vertical deilecting circuits from separate horizontal and vertical synchronizing pulse outputs.

As previously mentioned and as illustrated in Fig. 2, the condenser C may be discharged through a pentode, such as a 6J?, indicated at 36. In Figs. 1 and 2 like parts are indicated for the same reference characters. The main point to be noted in connection with the use of the pentode 86 is that its suppressor grid 31 is operated at a positive potential, this potential being 45 volts in the example illustrated. In this way the plate cathode impedance of the pentodc is made very low during the time that the pentode control grid is held positive by a horizontal synchronizing pulse, and complete discharge of the condenser C is insured. g

The grid condenser 3d and grid leak resistor 35 may have the capacity and resistor values indicated on the drawings, it being possible to make the resistance of the grid leak resistor greater for the pentode than for the triode shown in Fig. l. One advantage in using the pentode 36 rather than a triode is that its control grid need not be driven so far positive by the synchronizing pulses.

As shown in Fig. 2, the D. C. connection between the discharge tube 35 and the tube 2l may be of the conventional type including a bi'asing battery 38 in the D. C. connection for holding the grid of the tube 2l negative with respect to its cathode. The use of a cathode resistor as shown in Fig. 1 for obtaining the proper bias on the grid of tube 2l is preferred, however.

In Fig. 3 my invention is shown applied to a horizontal deilecting circuit in which the horizontal saw-tooth voltage Waves are modulated by the vertical saw-tooth voltage waves for the purpose of providing keystone correction. It is well known that keystone correction is desired in transmitter circuits which employ cathode ray pickup tubes of the type in which the mosaic screen is positioned at an acute angle with respect to the axis of the tube. In Figs. 1 and 3 like parts are indicated by the same reference characters. As shown in Fig. 3, the desired modulation is obtained by feeding the vertical sawtooth voltage waves through an amplifier tube 4i so that they appear across the potentiometer 9 connected in shunt relation to the output circuit of this ampliiier. As a result, there appears in the output circuit of an output tube a series of-horizontal saw-tooth voltage waves of gradually changing amplitude. Each saw-tooth wave, however, comes back to ground potential. These saw-tooth waves are fed through the primary winding of a transformer 43, the secondary winding of which is connected 'to a pair of electromagnetic deflecting coils 45.

Associated with the deiiecting coils is the socalled dampingtube circuit comprising a diode 44 having in series therewith a resistor 46 shunted by a condenser 41, this series combination being `connected acrossthe' primary winding of transformer 43 inthe particular example shown. A

damping circuit of this character is described in- Reissue No. 21,400, issued March 19, 1940, to A. D. Blumlein, and in Toison application Serial No.l 282,276, filed June 30, 1939.

It may be noted that while the saw-tooth voltage waves supplied to the grid of tube 40 are unsymmetrical with respect to an A. C. axis, this lack of symmetry is compensated for by the damping tube circuit with the result that a symmetrical saw-tooth current ows through the deflecting coils. In order to obtain the best results the resistor and capacitor elements 46 and 41 in series with the diode 44 should be given values such that a good vertical deilecting sawtooth voltage wave appears across them. This means that condenserY l1 should have small capacity. For example, condenser M might be given a capacity of .05 mf. and the resistor 46 given a resistance of the order of about 5000 ohms.

In the drawings there havebeen indicated, by way of example, the values of certain condensers and resistors, these values being given in microfarads, micro-microfarads and in megohms. It should be understood that these values may be changed within rather wide limits. For example, the condenser C may have a value of micr'omicrofarads instead of 200 micro-microfarads providing other circuit values are properly adjusted. It will also be understood that the value of the resistor R and the value of the charging voltage depend one upon the other just as in the conventional deilecting circuit, and that either or-both may have values substantially different than those indicated.

I claim as my invention:

l. In a directly driven horizontal delecting circuit, a saw-tooth wave generator comprising a condenser, means for charging said condenser for a certain period during which the voltage thereacross increases predominantly as a linearfunction with respect to time, an electric discharge tube connected to complete a discharge path through which said condenser may be discharged. said tube having a control grid and having a cathode at a certain potential for substantially completely discharging said condenser and thereby bringing it to said cathode potential at the end of said period in response to a positive synchronizing pulse of a certain minimum duration being applied to said control grid, an electric discharge tube having input electrodes which are direct current coupled across said condenser for supplying the saw-tooth voltage appearing thereacross to a utilization circuit, moans for impressing upon said control grid a mixed signal comprising positive horizontal synchronizing pulses of comparatively short duration and positive vertical synchrnizing pulses of comparatively long duration. the discharge path of said condenser having a. time constant that is short enough so that said condenser will be substantially completely dis= charged by the shorter of said pulses as well as by the longer of said pulses.

2. A saw-tooth wave generating circuit comprising a condenser, means for charging said condenser for a certain period during which the voltage thereacross increases at least approximately' linearly with respect to time, an electric discharge tube through which said condenser may be discharged, said tube having a control grid and hav-l ing a lcathode at a certain potential, means for discharging said condenser to said cathode potential at the end of said period, a vacuum tube having a control grid and a cathode which are di` rect current coupled across said condenser for supplyingthe saw-tooth voltage appearing thereacross to a utilization circuit, said direct current coupling including an output resistor connected between the cathode of said vacuum tube and ground and having the proper resistance to hold said last cathode positive with respect to the control grid of said vacuum tube.

condenser for a certain period during which the voltage thereacross increases at' least approximately linearly with respect to time, an electric discharge tube through which said condenser may be discharged said tube having a control grid and having a cathode at a certain potential, means for discharging said condenser to said cathode potential at the end of said period, an electric discharge tube having input electrodes which are direct current coupled across said condenser for supplying the horizontal saw-tooth tooth voltage Wave appears thereacross to com- 3. In combination a horizontal deflecting circuit including a saw-tooth wave generator which comprises a condenser, `means for charging said pensate for lack of symmetry in the modulated horizontal deilecting wave. KARL R. WENDT. 

